\n<\/p>\n
The 1998 John Waters film \u201cPecker<\/a>\u201d ends with an unlikely crowd carousing in a seedy basement bar\/impromptu photo gallery in Baltimore. Strippers and one busty, enthusiastic art collector dance on tables as a talking Virgin Mary icon watches. It\u2019s a jubilant, chaotic and naughty party open to anyone with a sense of humor, just the way the director likes it.<\/p>\n Mr. Waters, 78, gained a cult following in the 1970s with delightfully shocking films like \u201cMultiple Maniacs<\/a>,\u201d \u201cFemale Trouble<\/a>\u201d and, of course, the raunchy \u201cPink Flamingos<\/a>\u201d before breaking big with \u201cHairspray<\/a>,\u201d in 1988.<\/p>\n Since then, Mr. Waters has built an empire of camp, now comprising more than a dozen films, spoken-word shows and numerous books, including his 2022 debut novel, \u201cLiarmouth<\/a>,\u201d which has been optioned for a movie that Mr. Waters hopes will star Aubrey Plaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr. Waters, a Baltimore native, grew up in Lutherville, Md., a suburb he described in a recent phone interview as \u201cupper-middle-class everything.\u201d Yearning for escape, he had his mom drop him off at a Baltimore beatnik hangout called Martick\u2019s<\/a>, even though he was underage. \u201cShe said, \u2018Maybe you\u2019ll meet your people here,\u2019\u201d he recalled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI did find my people \u2014 bohemia!\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Since those days, Mr. Waters has become an unofficial spokesman for all things Baltimore, which was one of The New York Times\u2019s 52 Places to Go in 2024<\/a>. The city has embraced him, too. It honored him with an official day, Feb. 7, 1985<\/a> (it was a one-off), and the all-gender restrooms<\/a> at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the institution to which he has bequeathed his sizable art collection<\/a>, are named for him.<\/p>\n Though Mr. Waters has apartments in San Francisco and New York and spends summers in Provincetown, Mass., he lives primarily in North Baltimore and has no plans to change that. \u201cIf I had to give up everywhere,\u201d Mr. Waters said, \u201cthis is where I\u2019d live.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are his five favorite places in Baltimore.<\/p>\n A neon marquee graces the brick facade of the Charles Theater<\/a>. First opened as an all-newsreel cinema, the Charles now screens primarily independent movies and hosts periodic revival series. Mr. Waters has a special place in his heart for the theater, which his friend Pat Moran managed for years. \u201cThat\u2019s where \u2018Polyester<\/a>\u2019 opened,\u201d Mr. Waters said, referring to his 1981 film. A major Easter egg awaited those at the premiere, since a scene in the film had been shot at the theater. In the movie, the heroine\u2019s philandering husband owns a porn theater, and a flashback shows its exterior. \u201c\u2018My Burning Bush\u2019 was the title on the marquee,\u201d Mr. Waters said, and people were coming out \u201czipping up their zippers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When he first started visiting Peter\u2019s Inn<\/a>, Mr. Waters knew it as Motorcycle Pete\u2019s, after the owner, his friend Peter Denzer. \u201cHe was a biker, and he was in \u2018Desperate Living<\/a>,\u2019\u201d Mr. Waters said, recalling his 1977 dark comedy. \u201cHe played one of Edith Massey\u2019s goons.\u201d Mr. Denzer later sold the place to Bud and Karin Tiffany, who transformed it from dive bar to locally sourced eatery. Today, Mr. Waters said, \u201cit still looks like a biker bar,\u201d but \u201cthe food is absolutely amazing.\u201d A mounted blue marlin hangs behind the bar (Mr. Tiffany caught it on his 16th birthday, Ms. Tiffany said) and Ms. Tiffany writes the menu by hand. But Peter\u2019s also makes a mean martini and serves a p\u00e2t\u00e9 \u2014 beloved by Mr. Waters \u2014 that arrives in a lidded glass container, its smooth surface artfully arrayed with herbs and fruit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n With its Art Deco sign, neon-bathed interior and well-curated jukebox (including David Bowie and Bj\u00f6rk), the seven-decade-old Club Charles \u2014 across the street from the Charles Theater \u2014 is \u201cstill the coolest place in Baltimore,\u201d Mr. Waters said. He loves the no-nonsense bartenders (\u201cThey\u2019ve been there forever and ever\u201d) and \u201cunpredictable\u201d patrons. Mr. Waters started frequenting the bar in the 1970s, when it was called the Wigwam and had a rough reputation. The owner, an Indigenous woman named Esther Martin<\/a>, ran it, Mr. Waters said, buzzing in only people who didn\u2019t seem rich: \u201cIt was Studio 54 in reverse.\u201d Once, Mr. Waters recalled, \u201cI saw somebody bite somebody\u2019s nose off in there. It was scary. But it was jumping!\u201d<\/p>\n On any given night at the performance space Metro Baltimore<\/a> \u2014 formerly known as the Metro Gallery \u2014 you never know quite what to expect. Which is why Mr. Waters loves it. In February, he attended \u201canti-Valentine\u2019s gay night,\u201d a dance party crowded with young L.G.B.T.Q. people and heavy metal fans. \u201cSo the gay people there are the ones that do not fit in gay bars,\u201d Mr. Waters said. \u201cI\u2019m one of them. The first time I ever went to a gay bar, I thought, \u2018I might be queer, but I ain\u2019t this,\u2019 because I was looking for bohemia.\u201d The Metro, he said, feels like a modern bohemia. The program (think acts with names like LustSickPuppy<\/a> and Pansy Division<\/a>) is as motley as the crowd, and includes drag nights, record releases and film premieres.<\/p>\n As an author, screenwriter and former bookstore employee, Mr. Waters knows his bookshops. Atomic Books<\/a> stands out, he says, because it is \u201cone of the only places where you can get big fashion magazines from all over the world,\u201d and also has \u201ca huge true-crime section.\u201d In it, classics such as \u201cHelter Skelter,<\/a>\u201d about the 1969 Charles Manson murders, sit alongside cult favorites like \u201cPanzram<\/a>,\u201d about the early-20th-century serial killer Carl Panzram. The shop, whose motto is \u201cLiterary Finds for Mutated Minds,\u201d also carries a vast array of John Waters merchandise, and receives his fan mail. A bar in back serves local beer, cider and mead, including a Union Craft Brewing I.P.A. called Divine. It might be the perfect place to raise a glass and toast Mr. Waters\u2019s cinematic diva who shares the beer\u2019s name. And who knows whom you might meet in the aisles? \u201cIf you\u2019re ever looking to score sexually, go to bookshops,\u201d Mr. Waters advises. \u201cYou always meet smart people, and they\u2019re cute.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n1. The Charles Theater<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
4. Metro Baltimore<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
5. Atomic Books<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n